In June 1858, an extraordinary heatwave struck London, causing the River Thames to dry up into a stagnant, sewage-choked sludge. Decades of booming industrialization and the widespread adoption of flush toilets had turned the river into an open sewer, but the unprecedented temperatures unleashed a stench so overpowering that it became known as the Great Stink. The stench hit the Houses of Parliament directly, as the Victorian palace stood right on the riverbank.
To make legislative sessions bearable, government officials attempted to neutralize the volatile odors by soaking heavy curtains in chloride of lime and dumping hundreds of tons of the chemical directly into the river at major sewer outfalls. However, the sheer volume of waste quickly overwhelmed the available chemical supply, leading to critical shortages of lime disinfectant across the capital. As supply chains collapsed under the massive, emergency demand, Parliament was forced to confront the systemic public health catastrophe instead of relying on temporary chemical fixes.
Within a record eighteen days, Parliament drafted and passed emergency legislation authorizing civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette to construct a revolutionary underground sewer system. Bazalgette's massive engineering marvel diverted sewage far east of the city, permanently altering London's urban infrastructure and eradicating cholera epidemics.